The interim government on Sunday approved an amendment incorporating a new provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure to prevent arbitrary arrests and false cases.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the advisory council at the Chief Adviser鈥檚 Office in the capital鈥檚 Tejgaon with chief adviser Muhammad Yunus in the chair.
After the meeting, law adviser Asif Nazrul at a press briefing at the capital鈥檚 Foreign Service Academy told journalists that a gazette notification would be issued by the law ministry in this regard on Monday.
鈥榃e ourselves are very embarrassed about some things during our government鈥檚 tenure, and we are trying to address these issues. One such issue is filing of false cases, and another one is making financial gains by implicating innocent people in these false cases.鈥�
鈥榃e have brought a major amendment to a provision of the 1898 CrPC to get rid of these problems, he said.
When a murder case is filed following the provisions of CrPC, it sometimes takes three to four years to investigate, he said.
There are hundreds of accused in some cases and names of accused are put in the cases even through illegal exchange of money, he said.
To resolve this, a new provision, 173(a), has been included in the CrPC, he said.
The provision states that the police commissioner, the superintendent of police, or any police officer of the rank of SP in a district, can direct the investigation officer to submit a preliminary probe report to the magistrate regarding any case under his jurisdiction if he considers it logical, he said.
And, the magistrate can exempt innocent people from the case at the pre-trial stage, said Asif.
Dropping the names from the case does not mean that the investigation of the case will be stopped, he said.
After investigation, if the police find any of the names, exempted from the case at the pre-trial stage, involved in the crime, his or her name will be again included in the case, the adviser said.
鈥業f the provision is implemented, the police and the court administration will be able to work together and take action against the illegal exchange of money over arrest and prosecution in such cases,鈥� he said.
The law adviser also hoped that many innocent people would be relieved from harassment if this provision was implemented.
The government move came amid allegations of filing a huge number of false and motivated cases by some people since the fall of the Awami League regime on August 5, 2024 amid a student-led mass uprising.